A brief stop in Cologne

The Beautiful Gothic Cologne Cathedral

Early on Monday we parted Schwerin station for a 6-hour train trip to Cologne, Germany. The group thought that this would be an ideal on-the-way stop for a few days before we started our next exchange in Belgium.  Cologne has the distinction of being the most bombed city in WWII - it was bombed in retaliation for Germany's bombing of London.  It is amazing to look at the pictures posted near the cathedral and realize the rebuilding that has taken place to put it all back together.  Yesterday we took a pleasant boat ride on the Rhine River and today we booked an English guided tour of the old city and the cathedral. 

The cathedral is huge and reminded me of St Patrick's in New York City - only much larger!  It's construction began in 1248 and was finally finished in 1880.  We toured the Museum Ludwig next door.  It features Picasso works and art that was saved from the Nazi's control.  We rented headsets and that helped us a bit in understanding some of the more non-traditional works! 

Tomorrow we are headed to Belgium,  but we heard today that the rail strike is back on!  Hopefully, our train will be able to get through.  Never a dull moment!

We order pig knuckle for dinner with mashed potatoes



Dennis in his unique hat

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Farewell to Schwerin

 

Schwerin Water Tower circa 1889

Today is Sunday and our last day with the Schwerin Friendship Force Club.  It began with a lovely breakfast and listening to outdoor jazz.  Later, we went out for Greek food - very good in Germany!  Our host, Elke, made a special black forest cake (pictured below) for the Good Bye dinner at the top of the town water tower.  It was the first time they've gotten permission to use it and it is a very unique place to meet.  The views of the town were awesome!

I thanked their club and gave them a donation from our club and then we all participated in a "Florida" show.  A translator helped them understand all the facts we had about Florida, e.g., "F" if for the Fountain of Youth that Desoto was looking for when the Spanish discovered it.  You get the idea!

All the club members made awesome homemade desserts.  Following that, there was a barbeque with grilled pork chop steaks, all kinds of salads, liberal wine and beer and more special puddings with sauces.  We will need to diet when we get home!



Elke's delicious home-made Black Forest Cake - YUM

There was a sun shower and suddenly a gorgeous rainbow appeared.  We are sad to leave these wonderful people.  Tomorrow we travel about 6 hours to Cologne for a few days on our own, then we will start our next Friendship Force Exchange in Belgium. 


A Rainbow Ending for our Farewell Party - just beautiful!

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Schwerin Castle & Grinding Mill - May 16

Today was the day to tour the inside of the Schwerin Castle and it was magnificent.  It is the Versailles or Sanssouci of Mecklenburg.  It was built by Duke Frederick who in 1756 began to convert his father's hunting lodge into a palace.  The highlight was the Throne Room, just what you would imagine, very ornate with red velvet and gold everywhere!  There were signs in English in every room that described the furnishings in detail and many pictures of the royalty in all their finery.  Check out the links for descriptions.


After visiting the castle, we snap a group photo of our FF Club

Schwerin Castle

Inside the Castle

They told us a great little story of Little Peter,
Petermännchen
who lived in the castle.  There are figures of him everywhere!



Magnificent Throne Room

Later we visited an ancient Grinding Mill, where we received a demonstration of how the rocks were mined and polished to create the granite and marble castle finishings.  Check out Grinding Mill  link.  It was a cold day yesterday - in the 40's.  They say that it is a cold spring this year so we bundled up.  Thanks, Mom, for the scarf you gave me last Christmas.  It is getting good use!

Our last day is tomorrow and our hosts have booked a jazz concert with lunch for us.  They have gone out of their way to be the very BEST hosts and have made us feel so welcome.

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Elke told me that you must have 3 things to be a member of Friendship Force:

  1.  You must like to travel
  2.  You must have the means to do so.

But MOST IMPORTANT

  3.  You must have LOVE for people...and they do!



Elke and Hartmut by their garden by the sea with LOVE!

Wismar - May 15

St Nickolai, Wismar

The club leader took us all on a gorgeous one-hour train ride, past yellow fields of rapeseed (canola) fields to the ancient town of Wismar.  Founded in the 12th century, it rose to prominence because of its large harbor on the Baltic Sea.  We toured its magnificent Gothic cathedrals
St Nickolai - one of the largest brick churches that was undamaged in WWII.  Brick making was demonstrated at St Mary's  and we viewed St  George that was heavily damaged but after reunification with West Germany, it was reconstructed with donated funds.



Richard found a mermaid

Sweden conquered the town and for 150 years had soldiers stationed there.  We ate a delicious lunch at  Alter Schwede, the oldest (1380) gothic townhouse in the city.  We toured a recently opened UNISECO world heritage site with an example of a merchant's home.  We viewed the Water Gate, the only part of a city wall that still remains.  The boats in the harbor were of interest - two huge masted sailing ships as well as a cute wooden sailboat called the Elephant. 

Two Friendship Force Presidents
Joanne with Hans

We treated our hosts to dinner on Lake Schwerin, where we dined on veal cutlets (schnitzel) and real German potato salad.  I'm really enjoying their white wine and Richard loves the beer! 


Richard enjoys a beer

Check out Wismar Churches

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Man's/Father's Day at seaside town of Warnemuende

Joanne testing out cold Baltic Sea

For our "free" day in the itinerary, our guests took us to see the Baltic Sea and the quaint seaside resort city called Warnemuende.  It has an attractive sandy beach on which hooded wicker beach chairs are set up.  It was too cold that day to sit on the beach, but we snapped a few pictures.  Hartmut and Elke brought their good friends (who are also in their Friendship Force Club), Dagmar and Walter with their dog, Kayo.  The Germans know how to relax and take in a good day at the beach.  It all started with us sipping cappuccino coffees.  A little later as we strolled along, they pulled out tiny bottles of vodka with fruit juice (just a few sips to warm up!).  We strolled along past small bars and fish restaurants.  It's a fun village atmosphere with families all enjoying the day.  It was a holiday - "Man's Day" (what it was called in East Germany) and now "Father's Day" where the men have off from work and party all day long.  Partying involves drinking or biking or watching soccer games or whatever.  By the way, when we had breakfast that morning, Elke had a gift for Richard for the day - a little bottle of whiskey and chocolate candy!



Joanne with Dagmar and Kayo

A few hours later, they took us to a fish restaurant, where we had crab sandwiches (they had the herring) and beer and special white wine.  Their friends are lots of fun and Dagmar speaks English very well.  We had lots of laughs!!  We watched a sailboat race - oh, then it was time for pizza at another restaurant!  By then, it warmed up a bit to sit outside in the sun.  The Germans take every opportunity to eat outside whether it is cold or not!  They have to soak up the sunshine that they have.  There is a long pier where we watched old wooden vessels transit the area.  All very interesting!   We had lots of fun with the dog - just a sweet gentle animal who attracts attention everywhere they go.  We then headed for home - a wonderful Man's/Father's Day for all!

Strolling along Harbor Front on Man's/Father's Day



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Schwerin - May 13

The beautiful castle in Schwerin, Germany, where we are visiting

After a nice 1-1/2 hour train ride from Berlin, we were greeted by the Schwerin Friendship Force Club.  Our hosts, Elke and Hartmut, took us to a restaurant with a view of the city for coffee and delicious cake.  There was a brief Welcome by their president and all the members of their club, 28 in all.  They explained that Schwerin was in the former East Germany and our hosts and most of the people in their club lived under Communist rule under the GDR (German Democratic Republic).  They could not travel outside of Germany, Russia or Poland.  They lived in government housing and there was little money.  They had to work 7 days a week - work, work, work - but everyone had a job.  They could see television from the west and knew what was happening in the rest of the world.  However, on the upside, Schwerin is a city on the shore of 7 lakes and beautiful wooded areas and farmland. 

In late 1989 some of the people in Schwerin bravely demonstrated.  They wanted to join the rest of the world and have independence,  So, they lit candles and walked together and even sang, "We shall overcome."  It was a scary time because the Police followed them around and they were not sure what would happen to the demonstrators.  Fortunately around that time, the Berlin Wall came down and "reunification" occurred with West Germany.  Some were able to get their homes and land back.  However, it has been difficult because there is still a high unemployment rate in this area - 15 to 20% - and that means that many of the young people have started to move away to the larger cities to obtain employment.  Others have to travel long distances to work.



With our hosts, Elke and Hartmut

Our hosts, Elke and Hartmut, are retired and have a nice home in an historic building that they purchased in 1999.  We have a nice room on the lower level with a private bathroom and sitting area.  They learned Russian in school and only a little English.  However, we have been  communicating well with a dictionary and Richard's little knowledge of German (which he took many years ago).  Elke and Helmut are lovely, warm people and we are enjoying them very much.  Tonight they took us out to eat and "German" bowling with their friends (who bowl once a month).  This is quite different from American bowling - but we got the idea and had a great time.  During the day, everyone went on a tour of the city, castle grounds and theater.   Tomorrow, they are talking us on a trip to see the North Sea.  Check out our photos below.

Our Friendship Force of Southwest Florida Group posing before the lake in Schwerin- HI EVERYONE!!

 

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Monday in Potsdam

Our friend, Sue Linehan, told us not to miss Potsdam so today we hopped a train, rode about an hour, and visited Frederick the Great's opulent palace playground.  It was a great day for it because the sun came out with 80 degree weather, quite a change from yesterday's biting winds and low 50 degree temperature.

Whoops - the bus that was supposed to whisk us from the train to the palace grounds was still on strike!  But all was not lost, we took a tram that required quite a bit of walking (but we needed some exercise).

The palace grounds were quite impressive and we decided to tour the Neues Palais (New Palace).  Well, not quite so new - it was built in 1769 with more than 200 rooms to accommodate all of Frederick's political guests and to show the world that Prussia was a force to be reckoned with!  We made it through 20 ornate rooms complete with some original furnishings - not quite our taste, but we could appreciate the craftsmanship of the royal rooms. We really enjoyed a complementary golf cart ride back through the gardens - the lilacs and azaleas were blooming and fragrant.

Check us out having a bowl of spargel soup for lunch.  Spargel is white asparagus that is only available mid May to late June.  It is delicious and we cannot get enough of it!  Just yummy!

Tomorrow we leave via train to begin our first Friendship Force Exchange in Schwerin, Germany.

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